Mailing from NYC to Seoul

December 20, 2007 7:39 AM

Mailing, from NYC to Seoul, a padded envelope (papers and a slim CD case) with no commercial value. What's my cheapest option if I want it there within a few weeks? (Mailing on Monday 31 Dec and want it to arrive by Monday 21 Jan.)
posted by allterrainbrain to work & money (7 comments total)

Postal rate calculator.
posted by beagle at 7:48 AM on December 20, 2007

First Class International is probably your best bet. It looks to cost about $9 to ship something under a pound to Seoul. Although they don't have an ETA, I ship internationally quite a bit and find that First Class International doesn't take any longer than International Priority - so it would probably take about a week.
posted by suki at 7:49 AM on December 20, 2007

DHL get a quote. Fedex ratefinder. UPS rate calculator.
posted by jessamyn at 7:50 AM on December 20, 2007

The USPS got rid of many of their esoteric options in the recent rate change. Like they used to have "Economy Parcel Post" which was a slow cheap surface option, but it was too slow and had unreliable delivery, so they got rid of it.
posted by smackfu at 8:16 AM on December 20, 2007

Thanks! Does anybody have experience with mailing to South Korea in terms of whether the mailing companies' estimates are reliable? I'm asking because intl delivery times aren't always as claimed in my experience (not just w/ USPS) and I haven't mailed anything to S. Korea before.
posted by allterrainbrain at 8:19 AM on December 20, 2007

NYC and Seoul are not very hard to get things from/to. I've sent a couple letters that way and they don't take much more than a week (international first class).
posted by deeaytch at 8:32 AM on December 20, 2007

I've found the mailing companies' estimates quite reliable. Actually in my experience U.S. -> Seoul is pretty fast, within a week for international first class, but Seoul -> U.S. is a crapshoot, taking at least a week, closer to 2 weeks (3 weeks not unheard of) for air mail.
posted by needled at 9:44 AM on December 20, 2007